States Continue to Increase Student Financial Aid Despite Tight Budgets

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June 1, 2005

States awarded approximately $7.3 billion in total student financial aid in the 2003-04 academic year, an increase of more than 6 percent from the 2002-03 total aid amounts, according to the National Association of State Student Grant and Aid Programs (NASSGAP) 35th Annual Survey Report on State-Sponsored Student Financial Aid.

Grant aid continues to comprise the majority of state student financial aid, with the greater part (74 percent) of grants awarded being need-based. As a group, California, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas awarded more than $2.7 billion in undergraduate need-based grant aid, collectively accounting for 64 percent of all need-based aid. South Carolina, Washington, D.C., Georgia, New York, and Indiana were cited as providing the largest amount of grant aid on a per-capita basis.

The NASSGAP report provides additional findings on a state-by-state basis as well as prior years of the study for funding comparisons. For other studies on state economics and finance, see the NACUBO research Web pages.